Educators’ guide to building an inclusive bookshelf

Educators’ guide to building an inclusive bookshelf representing Latinx voices

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Words by Anika Aldamuy Denise • Illustrations by Paola Escobar

Planting Stories � e Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré

Why the inclusion of Latinx children’s books is important and how to make it happenLatinx students make up more than 25% of students enrolled in schools across the United States, but as the most recent survey from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found, only 5% of children’s books published depict a character that is Latinx. The Latinx population residing in the United States is very diverse, representing different languages, cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities.

There are several terms to refer to individuals from Latin America or individuals who speak Spanish. The more recent gender-inclusive terms are Latinx or Latine. This is used to push against the gendered binary terms of Latino and Latina. Latino and Latina are used to refer to an individual from Latin America, including Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Latinidad is a Spanish language term used to reference the various attributes that are shared by Latin American people and their descendants.

The majority of Latinx people living in the United States are U.S. born rather than foreign born. While many Latinx people might speak Spanish, they might also speak a variation of Spanish spoken by Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, or Mexicans. They might also speak an indigenous language such as Q’anjob’al, one of the many indigenous languages spoken by Guatamalans. There are also Latinx people who do not speak an additional language other than English. This means that in the classroom you must bring in an array of children’s books to ensure you move beyond the “single story” (Adichie, 2009).

A good place to begin thinking about the books you want to bring into your classroom or library is with the Latinx population that is represented in your school community. When students don’t see themselves, their families, or their communities represented in the literature shared, they can begin to think something is wrong with them or that their experiences do not matter. The first step is to take the time to learn about your students and their families. Learn and gain an understanding of their cultural practices, linguistic abilities, and funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). Once you have that information you can then search for books that are representative of students’ lives, experiences, and histories. Of course, even if you don’t have Latinx students in your classroom, Latinx books still need to be a part of the curriculum. Books featuring Latinx characters can provide students with another perspective to counter false narratives, stereotypes, and monolithic views of the Latinx community. It is important that students from all backgrounds learn about the valuable contributions, both historical and contemporary, that the Latinx community has made to the United States.

It is also important to consider the use of multilingual texts. Using multilingual texts can be intimidating for teachers who might not be as familiar with the additional languages, but the benefits to our students outweigh the teachers’ discomfort. There are many different types of multilingual texts. There are bilingual texts that have the same text in English and an additional language, such as Spanish, and there are other texts that translanguage. Texts that utilize translanguaging will include words in different languages with no translation, but the text surrounding the word or the illustrations contextualize the meaning and support the understanding of that specific word.

We encourage you to Shake Up Your Shelves by adding titles that are inclusive of the Latinx experience both in the United States and abroad. Here we offer you some first steps that you can take to make changes to your collection and your curriculum.


Questions to consider when selecting Latinxchildren’s books for your shelves

Do the Latinx characters actively participate in the story as main characters or are they

only secondary characters? What roles do they have in the story? Do they have leadership

roles?

1Are the Latinx characters in culturally stereotyped

roles such as newly arrived immigrants, men full of

machismo, shy girls, mothers of many children?

2 Is a strong sense of community

and family expressed in the illustrations and text? Do elders

help care for the children?

3

Do all of the Latinx charactershave the same appearance?

Or is a diversity of skin tones, hairstyles and textures, and clothing presented? Not all

Latinxs have a “Latin look” of dark skin, hair, and eyes.

4Are varied cultural experiences of Latinxs represented? Is the

diversity of Latinx cultures represented, such as Central and South America, Mexico,

the Dominican Republic,Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc.?

5How are languages represented

in the text? Is language used in expansive and authentic ways that are aligned to the

linguistic practices of Latinx communities? Or do they

reproduce negative stereotypes of languages beyond English?

6

Is multilingualism representedin the text reflective of your

students’ languages?

7Do the Latinx characters

abandon some aspect of their culture and/or language in order to achieve happiness?

8Do the books represent bothhistoric and contemporary

stories of Latinx communities?

9

Does the author/illustrator have experience with the Latinx subculture that he/she is representing?Or is the book written/illustrated by someone who has briefly visited a Latin American country?

How qualified is the author/illustrator to write the book?

10


Further reading and resourcesLatinx Kidlit Book Festivalhttps://www.latinxkidlitbookfestival.com

Latinxs in Kid Lithttps://latinosinkidlit.com

Latino Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards WebsitesPura Belpré Awardhttp://www.ala.org/alsc\belpre

Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children’s Book Awardhttps://www.education.txstate.edu/ci/riverabookaward/

Américas Awardhttp://www4.uwm.edu/clacs/aa/index.cfm

Learning for Justice Selecting Diverse Texts Toolhttps://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/publications/reading-diversity

Julia López-Robertson (2021). Celebrating Our CuentosChoosing and Using Latinx Literature in Elementary Classrooms. Scholastic

Diverse Book Finderhttps://diversebookfinder.org

We Need Diverse Bookshttps://diversebooks.org/

Social Justice BooksLatinx and Latin American titles: https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/latinx/


Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez,illustrated by Jaime Kim

A Girl Named Rositaby Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Leo Espinosa

Paletero Man by Lucky Diaz,illustrated by Micah Player

Words by Anika Aldamuy Denise • Illustrations by Paola Escobar

Planting Stories � e Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré

Planting Storiesby Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Paola Escobar

My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero, illustrated by Zeke Peña

Gathering the Sun: An Alphabetin Spanish and English

by Alma Flor Ada,illustrated by Simón Silva

Laughing Out Loud, I Flyby Juan Felipe Herrera,

illustrated by Karen Barbour

Boogie Boogie, Y’allby C.G. Esperanza

Suggested Books*Also available in Spanish


Efrén Dividedby Ernesto Cisneros

The Insidersby Mark Oshiro

Mercy Suarez Changes Gearsby Meg Medina

Mañanalandby Pam Muñoz Ryan

Small Room, Big Dreamsby Monica Brown,

illustrated by Mirelle Ortega

Tito Puente, Mambo King/Tito Puente, Rey del Mambo

by Monica Brown,illustrated by Rafael Lopez

Book Fiesta! by Pat Mora,illustrated by Rafael Lopez

Last Stop on Market Streetby Matt de la Peña,

illustrated byChristian Robinson

ANNA MERIANOANNA MERIANO

A A DDAASSH H OOF F TTRROOUUBBLLEE

Love Sugar Magic:A Dash of Trouble

by Anna Meriano, illustratedby Mirelle Ortega

I Got Thisby Laurie Hernandez

Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls

by Kaela Rivera

Us in Progressby Lulu Delacre

Chunkyby Yehudi Mercado

* * *

Suggested Books


The Poet Xby Elizabeth Acevedo

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Miss Meteorby Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore

Everything Withinand In Between

by Nikki Barthelmess

Clap When You Landby Elizabeth Acevedo

The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves

We Set the Dark on Fireby Tehlor Kay Mejia

This guide was created by Dr. Tracey Flores and Dr. Sandra Osorio.

Dr. Tracey T. Flores is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and founder of Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers, a creative

space for Latina girls (grades 6-12) that invites them to share and perform stories from their lived experiences. Tracey is a former English Language

Development and English Language Arts (ELA) teacher, working for eight years alongside multilingual students, families, and communities in K-8

schools throughout Glendale and Phoenix, Arizona.

Dr. Sandra L. Osorio is an Associate Professor at Illinois State University. She is a former bilingual teacher of PreK-2nd grade in Central Illinois

for over 10 years. Tracey and Sandra’s work focuses on centering Latinx students’ dynamic community languages, practices, and knowledges. They both are passionate about the implementation and use of Latinx children’s

literature with teachers, students, families, and their own children.

Martínez-Roldán, C. (2013). The representation of Latinos and the use of Spanish: A critical Content analysis of “Skippyjon Jones”. Journal of Children’s Literature, 39(1), 5-14.

Documents

Educators’ guide to building an inclusive bookshelf